Gaming machines which provide players awards in primary or base games are well known. Gaming machines generally require the player to place or make a wager to activate the primary or base game. In many of these gaming machines, the award is based on the player obtaining a winning symbol or symbol combination and on the amount of the wager (e.g., the higher the wager, the higher the award). Symbols or symbol combinations which are less likely to occur usually provide higher awards.
In such known gaming machines, the amount of the wager made on the base game by the player may vary. For instance, the gaming machine may enable the player to wager a minimum number of credits, such as one credit (e.g., one penny, nickel, dime, quarter or dollar) up to a maximum number of credits, such as five credits. This wager may be made by the player a single time or multiple times in a single play of the primary game. For instance, a slot gaming device may have one or more paylines and the slot gaming device may enable the player to make a wager on each payline in a single play of the primary game. Thus, it is known that a gaming machine, such as a slot gaming device, may enable players to make wagers of substantially different amounts on each play of the primary or base game ranging, for example, from 1 credit up to 125 credits (e.g., 5 credits on each of 25 separate paylines). This is also true for other wagering games, such as video draw poker, where players can wager one or more credits on each hand and where multiple hands can be played simultaneously. Accordingly, it should be appreciated that different players play at substantially different wagering amounts or levels and at substantially different rates of play.
Secondary or bonus games are also known in gaming machines. The secondary or bonus games usually provide an additional award to the player. Secondary or bonus games usually do not require an additional wager by the player to be activated. Secondary or bonus games are generally activated or triggered upon an occurrence of a designated triggering symbol or triggering symbol combination in the primary or base game. For instance, a bonus symbol occurring on the payline on the third reel of a three reel slot gaming machine may trigger the secondary bonus game. Part of the enjoyment and excitement of playing certain gaming machines is the occurrence or triggering of the secondary or bonus game (even before the player knows how much the bonus award will be). In other words, obtaining a bonus event and a bonus award in the bonus event is part of the enjoyment and excitement for players.
Progressive awards associated with gaming machines are also known. In one form, a progressive award is an award amount which includes an initial amount funded by a casino and an additional amount funded through a portion of each wager made on the progressive gaming machines. For example, 0.1% of each wager placed on the primary games of the gaming machines associated with the progressive award may be allocated to the progressive award or progressive award fund or pool. The progressive award grows in value as more players play the gaming machines and more portions of these players' wagers are allocated to the progressive award. When a player obtains a winning symbol or symbol combination associated with the progressive award, the accumulated progressive award is provided to the player. After the progressive award is provided to the player, the amount of the next progressive award is reset to the initial value and a portion of each subsequent wager on a gaming machine associated with a progressive award is allocated to the next progressive award.
In another form, a progressive award includes several special purpose funds, wherein a portion of each wager made on the progressive gaming machines is allocated to one or more of these different funds of the progressive award. For example, a progressive award includes a displayed meter (which is the current displayed value of the progressive award) and a reset fund (to support future resets of the displayed meter). A progressive award may also include a lag fund (which aggregates all wagers made during one period of time, such as 10 to 30 seconds, to increase the displayed meter for the next period of time), an escrow fund (as described below), a reserve fund, an operations expense fund or any combination thereof.
A progressive award may be associated with or otherwise dedicated to a single or stand-alone gaming machine. Alternatively, a progressive award may be associated with or otherwise dedicated to multiple gaming machines which each contribute a portion of wagers placed at such gaming machines to the progressive award. The multiple gaming machines may be in the same bank of gaming machines, in the same casino or gaming establishment (usually through a local area network (“LAN”)) or in two or more different casinos or gaming establishments (usually through a wide area network (“WAN”)). Such progressive awards played for by one or more gaming devices in the same gaming establishment sometimes called local area progressives (“LAP”) and such progressive awards played for by a plurality of gaming devices at a plurality of different gaming establishments are sometimes called wide area progressives (“WAP”).
Moreover, a gaming machine or bank of gaming machines may be simultaneously associated with a plurality of progressive awards. In these multi-level progressive (“MLP”) configurations, a plurality of progressive awards start at different award or value levels, such as $10, $100, 51000 and $10,000 and each individually increment or increase until provided to a player. Upon a suitable triggering event at one of more of the gaming devices associated with the MLP, one or more of the progressive awards which form the MLP are provided to one or more of the players at such gaming devices.
One problem that exists with such known progressive award gaming systems is that if the progressive award is initially implemented in association with a relatively small number of gaming devices, the progressive award initially increments at a relatively slow growth or incremental rate. That is, without a relatively large number of players playing at gaming devices associated with the progressive award, the progressive award increments at an unattractive rate and takes a substantial period of time to climb to a high value. This situation may cause certain players not to play at the gaming devices associated with the progressive award because they do not find the progressive award desirable or worth the playing. Such players avoiding the gaming devices associated with the progressive award further slows the growth rate of the progressive award which in turn causes it to take a longer period of time for the progressive award to climb to a high value.
Another similar problem with known progressive award gaming systems is that after a progressive award is provided to one or more players, the next progressive award often takes a substantial period of time to climb back to a relatively high value. This discourages certain players who do not wish to play for a base or reset level progressive award. Such discouragement, often known as jackpot fatigue, can lead to players walking away from the gaming devices of the progressive award gaming system because they no longer find the progressive award desirable or worth the cost of continuing to play.
Another problem with known progressive award gaming systems is that in gaming environments that operate twenty-four hours a day, the level of play at off-peak hours can be significantly lower than the level of play at peak hours. In such an environment, the growth of a progressive award can be extremely slow or even non-existent during the off-peak hours when there is little or no play. Similarly, the progressive award growth rate during peak hours can be well above what most players would consider to be a suitable rate. For these reasons, in some progressive systems, a progressive award escrow is established. In such a system, a portion of the money that would go to the progressive award during peak-hours is instead diverted to fund a temporary escrow fund which is not displayed to players, but is subsequently used to increase the progressive award growth rate during off-peak hours.
For example, peak hours for a gaming establishment are 4:00 pm to 12:00 am and a given progressive system gets five times the amount of play during peak hours than during other hours of the day. Specifically, during peak hours, the progressive award grows, on average, 5 cents every second whereas during off-peak hours, the progressive award grows, on average, 1 cent every second. In this example, a growth rate lower than 1.5 cents every second may be considered too slow to be exciting to certain players. In such a situation, an award escrow is known to be used to smooth the progressive award growth over the day to use at least part of peak hour wager based contributions to the progressive award to increase off-peak hour progressive award growth. That is, an amount which is based on player's wagers at the gaming devices in the gaming system is not added directly to the progressive award but rather is diverted to a separate award escrow where it is used to supplement the off-peak hours progressive award growth rate. For example, if half of the potential peak-hour wager based progressive award growth is diverted to a temporary escrow account, then the peak hour progressive award would grow, on average, 2.5 cents every second and would fund the escrow 2.5 cents×60 seconds/minute×60 minutes/hour×8 peak hours=$720.00. This escrow account is used to boost progressive award growth during the off-peak hours, thus the progressive award during the off-peak hours would grow by $720.00. In this example, 16 off-peak hours×60 seconds/minute×60 minutes/hour is 57,600 seconds, so $720.00/57,600 seconds means 1.25 cents every second of additional progressive award growth during off-peak hours. Combined with the usual 1 cent per second average wager based growth during off-peak hours, such additional progressive award growth would yield an effect off-peak hours progressive award growth rate of 1 cent per second+1.25 cents per second=2.25 cents per second. It should be appreciated that in many gaming jurisdictions, the progressive award growth that has been diverted to escrow is considered to be part of the actual progressive award, even if this escrowed value is not displayed to the player. For example, if a given player wins a given progressive award with the displayed value of $123,456.78, but the escrow fund at the time is worth $310.00, the actual award provided to the player is $123,766.78 (or $123,456,78+$310.00).
Accordingly, there is a continuing need to provide new and different gaming machines and gaming systems which provide one or more progressive award to one or more players.